


Bird Watching Club

by thatbeingsaid



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: M/M, but nothing severe, first fanfic, idk if it's even worth mentioning tbh, maybe a slight mention of bullying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-16
Updated: 2016-08-16
Packaged: 2018-08-09 06:03:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7789474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatbeingsaid/pseuds/thatbeingsaid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on this prompt: “i started a bird watching club at school and you are the only one who showed up at the first meeting so now i love you” au http://rogers-stevens.tumblr.com/post/124356820718/some-oddly-specific-aus-that-no-one-asked-for</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bird Watching Club

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfic. I really hope I did well. I'm hoping to get better. :)

For as long as he can remember, Phil has loved birds. He loves their songs early in the morning – even if he’d rather not get out of bed until noon – and he loves the way they can just spread their wings and fly away. The freedom they must feel as they soar through the sky is something Phil could only ever dream of experiencing. So, in the hopes of spreading the love of birds – and to find some people who share his interests – he took the initiative to start his own bird watching club at school.

He was very excited once the plan sprang to mind, and he set to work on making flyers and scouting out the best place to meet up. He knew he could talk his friend PJ into coming, and wherever PJ went, Chris was sure to follow. He might be able to talk Louise into coming as well, but ever since she turned _thirteen_ , she’d been super busy with her friend Zoe for some reason. Phil only hoped that more people saw his flyers around school and came to the first meeting.

He didn’t know how much attention his flyers would get until he saw some of the older kids scribbling mean or obscene messages onto them before taping them to his locker. Since they saw the flyers go up, they took every opportunity to tease Phil about his new club, and call him names like _birdbrain_ , or _the great bird man_ , or something equally as silly. Still, he wouldn’t let their mean antics take away something that brought him joy.

That Friday was supposed to be the first meeting. After school, he rushed straight to the park and made sure he got to one of the empty shelters before anyone else could. There were no birthday parties or family reunions today, so it wasn’t that difficult to find an empty one, and once their group showed up they’d move to a different location anyway; or so Phil thought. As it turned out, PJ got grounded and couldn’t show, Chris was actually terrified of birds, and Louise had a hair emergency and had to go to Zoe for help.

Phil decided to wait for at least 30 minutes, just to make sure that no one else would show up. He had put the meeting location and the time on the flyers, so that anyone could join up. He didn’t realize his mistake until he saw a boy walking over towards the picnic shelter, and it was one of the last boys he’d ever expect to willingly show up to his club; Daniel Howell.

Dan was only a few months younger than he was, and had already been taken under the wing of the older, much popular kids. He’d straightened his once-curly hair, and stopped hanging out with Chris as much as he used to. He stopped wearing his Pokémon shirts and started wearing all black. Worst of all, he’d started teasing Phil, when before, Phil had always offered a shoulder to cry on when the other kids would tease him.

And now here he was, walking towards Phil like he was on a mission, his all-black clothes looking completely out of place in heat of the day. By the time Dan reached the picnic shelter, Phil had gone from confused to angry. How dare Dan think that he could just come here and ruin something that Phil had been so excited for.

“What are you doing here, Howell?” Phil asked, frowning. “Where’s your new friends?”

Dan looked shocked for a moment, but Phil couldn’t exactly blame him. Phil had never talked to anyone like that before; at least, not as far as Dan was concerned. “Isn’t this the bird watching club?” he asked softly, as though he didn’t want anyone to hear.

Phil raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, it is.”

“Where’s everyone else?” he replied.

Phil’s frown deepened. Was Dan making fun of the fact that literally no one showed up? “They couldn’t make it today,” he said defensively. “But I know they wanted to come!”

“I believe you, Phil. Really,” Dan said. “Well, since it’s only the two of us, I guess we can’t really be called a _club_.”

Phil was confused. Wasn’t Dan there to make fun of Phil and tease him about his love of birds? “You want to join the club?” he asked. He couldn’t help but feel hopeful at the thought of someone joining because they actually liked birds, and not because of some ideal of friendship and loyalty.

Dan sighed and sat down at one of the picnic tables. He folded his arms in front of him, and rested his chin on them. “Before my grandad died, he would always take me out to look at the birds,” Dan explained. “It’s not that I particularly liked the birds, mind you. But he did, and I enjoyed spending time with him. I kind of miss that sometimes, y’know?”

Phil’s expression softened. In that moment, Dan looked like the young boy who would sneak into Phil’s house at night to complain about whatever was bothering him in his everyday life. He was the young boy who would fall asleep at Phil’s house just because his big, empty house was just too lonely. This was the Dan that Phil was best friends with; this was the Dan that Phil sorely missed.

Phil sat across from Dan and copied his posture. “I’m sorry about your grandad, Dan,” he said. “If you want to join the club, I’d be happy to have you here.”

Dan’s smile was genuine, and dimpled, and Phil couldn’t help but smile back. “So, is there like, a sign-in book or something?”

Phil shook his head. He didn’t have a sign-in book; although, that would make it seem more official and club-like. He dug around in his backpack for a moment, before pulling out his book that detailed all the birds that could be found in his local area. He signed his name in the front cover, and put the date beside it, and Dan did the same.

The bird watching club never really was a success. PJ and Chris came to the next “meeting”, and Louise often brought Zoe along. But, eventually, it turned into a big group of people just hanging out and having fun, and had very little to do with actual bird watching. Dan eventually became part of their group again, and Phil couldn’t have been happier with how things turned out.

* * *

Phil let out a cough as he sat down on the dusty floor of the attic. His parents were selling his childhood home, which he wasn’t pleased about in the slightest. Phil had been instructed to take anything he wished to save, or it would be given away. His boyfriend had come with him under the pretense of helping to carry boxes of stuff. In reality, Dan knew that Phil would be a sentimental mess by the end of the day, and would need emotional help as well.

Phil was already starting to get misty-eyed as he dug through boxes of old things. There were old photographs that he’d taken with his first proper camera. There were books of drawings that Dan had given to him during their years of flirting with each other (with Chris subtly trying to get them to _just admit your feelings already, geez!)_ There was even a trophy for a football match that he’d won. (It wasn’t really his success. He was just on the winning team; he’d stayed on the bench for the entirety of the match.)

“Look at all of this stuff,” Dan mumbled. “I had no idea how much your parents actually kept!”

Phil smiled. “I know. I really wish we could take it all with us,” he replied.

Dan gave him a smile, and wrapped his arms around Phil’s shoulders. Of the two of them, Phil was more sentimental. Dan liked to live in the moment; cherishing what he had right here, right now. There was rarely anything that he cared to keep, unless Phil gave it to him. He noticed a book at the bottom of the box, and reached in to grab it. When he saw what it was, he couldn’t help the smile that took over his face.

“Phil, do you remember this?” he asked with a laugh.

Phil looked at the book, and gave a small laugh of his own. “Oh my gosh, yes! The bird watching club!”

“I can’t wait to show Chris and PJ,” Dan replied.

Over the years, the bird watching book had become sort of a catch-all. The spine was warped and tearing because of all the things that got stuck into it. There were random photographs from when Chris would get a hold of Phil’s camera, and take every picture under the sun (as long as PJ and his funny faces were the subject, to be honest). Louise and Zoe had taken it upon themselves to press flowers between the pages of the book, to ‘add beauty’. Dan had written little letters, and stuck them into the pages for Phil to find whenever he looked through. The book had really become something that symbolized their childhood. It took all of them to create it, and he couldn’t wait to look through the memories again.


End file.
